The Whispers

In a Nutshell: A contemporary domestic suspense about four families and an event that reveals their truth. Think ‘Desperate Housewives’ meets ‘Big Little Lies’. Contains all the staples of this genre: unlikeable characters, unreliable narrators, OTT proceedings, a multitude of secrets, and an abundance of questionable behaviour. An entertaining ride as long as you know what to expect.

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Keeping my review somewhat vague as it is best to go in blind.

Plot Preview:

Four families lives close to each other in the suburbs. The only thing common to them is the street they stay on. Their financial capability, the size of their houses, their professional situations, and their personal/marital state of affairs varies.

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Now, the ten-year-old son of one of the couples is in coma after a fall from his bedroom window late at night. This event is the trigger for many discoveries and revelations.
The story comes to us from the third-person point of view of the four women of the above families (each a different kind of mother with a distinct mothering problem) over the course of a week, though there are plenty of flashbacks as well.

If you have watched shows like ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Big Little Lies’, then you can expect the same kind of content from this book. It is a total page-turner, not in a ‘Wow! This prose is marvellous!’ kind of way but in a ‘Wow! These people are nuts!’ kind of way. So if you are ready to toss the requirement for likeable characters and relatable human behaviour out the window, this novel is for you.

If you are the kind of reader who needs likeable characters in your fictional picks, steer clear of Ashley Audrain’s works. All the adult characters are toxic to varying levels. Some appear to have redeeming qualities, until we learn that the truth is something else altogether. The only characters towards whom you might feel some sympathy are the children of these families.

Given that our narrators are women and that the key suspense revolves around a little boy and the circumstances behind his fall, much of the drama centres around marriage and parenting. Whether working mothers or stay-at-home-mothers, wannabe mothers or frustrated mothers, the book explores all dramatic angles of mothers and mothering from the perspective of these slightly-bitchy, highly-judgemental women.

The four female leads might have varied professional and personal backgrounds, but they have one aspect in common: they all believe their decisions and choices to be right even when the world around them crumbles. As you can guess, this adds the ‘masala’ to this domestic suspense plot. (At times, too much masala in the form of hyper drama, spicy scenes, and crude words.) We probably know milder versions of such ladies in real life. But as these are fictional, every flaw is focussed upon and magnified. After a point, reading the story feels almost voyeuristic. I wish the language had been a bit toned down. The domestic drama was popcorn-thrilling enough, but the vulgarities brought down my enjoyment. Inserting crass words to highlight the thinking of one particular character might have still been understandable as it went with their brash personality, but seeing it for another character was off-putting.

As is usual in the domestic genre, the male characters hardly get anything to do for the most part. They are there mainly for physical appeal and marital tension.

Remembering the characters and their families might seem a bit overwhelming at the start, but the author keeps the writing crisp and the character backgrounds detailed and distinct. As such, it is easy to follow the storyline without muddling up the cast. However, the story does go back and forth several times, with the time references coming in somewhat vague points such as “September” or “Nine hours before”. Easy to understand, but might be tricky to keep track, especially on audio.

The character-focussed nature of the plot means that the pacing is on the slower side, though I didn’t find it slackening at any point. However, my engagement level wasn’t the same throughout. The first 60-70% of the book was OTT, but to the level expected in this genre. The final 30-odd% went OTT of OTT, if you get what I mean. With the abundance of sudden new revelations, ad hoc behavioural changes in characters, and exaggerated reactions in these chapters, my interest and investment in the outcome dipped somewhat. The final scene is a good one, though.

I had thoroughly enjoyed this author’s debut work, the mind-blowing psychological drama named ‘The Push’. Rereading my review made me realise that both books contain several aspects in common even beyond being books about problematic mothers. Both have a stark, filter-free depiction of the travails of motherhood. Both contain no wasted lines justifying the abhorrent behaviour of the characters. (They just are the way they are!) Both offer an excellent study on human psychology. And both are best read going in blind. (Oh, and both aren’t thrillers but tagged as such on Goodreads – no idea why!)

However, while I was quite blown away by ‘The Push’, ‘The Whispers’ left me merely entertained. I think the main reason for the diluted response this time is that there is nothing innovative in this book. ‘The Push’ actually pushed the boundaries of intergenerational trauma with its complex narrative structure and the clever use of the second-person writing. ’The Whispers’, with its OTT suburban families and situations, feels like standard domestic fare in comparison, though it handles the content decently enough.

Overall, this is a popcorn-entertainer book in the domestic suspense-drama category. It might not offer you thought-provoking quotes or lyrical prose or realistic scenarios, but if you enjoy mindless soap-opera-style entertainment that makes you feel better about yourself (and your spouse and your kids and your neighbours and your life in general), you might enjoy this one. Pick it up after tossing aside your logical cap and your need for normalcy and believability. Do note that the plot has several triggers related to pregnancy, parenting and matrimony.

3.75 stars. (4 stars for most of the book, but the final quarter was more like a 3.5.)

My thanks to Penguin Random House - Michael Joseph for providing the DRC of “The Whispers” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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Ashley Audrain's debut novel - The Push - was a bestseller. Her new novel - The Whispers - is guaranteed to be one as well.
Audrain again turns a keen eye on motherhood and marriage - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Whispers takes place in a suburb with a focus on four couples, specifically the mothers, the mothers to be, the mothers that were. The husbands come under close scrutiny as well.

A mother's behaviour opens the book with a bang. From that pivotal moment, the timeline moves from then to now, with more and more of the truth and the hidden being exposed and revealed.

The women all have an idea of what is happening and what did happen. But their own beliefs, opinions and history colours their perception. Audrain keeps the show more reader on their toes, changing the narrative and conceived notions as we head to the final pages. I had my own opinions and judgements. But were they
coloured by my own experiences?

Audrain's characters are so very well drawn. You'll find a favourite, and one to hate, but no one is perfect. Her suburban setting is just as spot on.

The book is so very hard to read at times, and I'd have to walk away and take a break. (There's a couple of cliffhangers that will have you shouting out loud) Other times, I couldn't put the book down. There as so many great lines in The Whispers, but nothing beats that last sentence.

Just wow - another fantastic book from Audrain. And I think this one's even better than The Push.

"But more than any proof she has, is a feeling. She'd once heard them described as the whispers - the moments that are trying to tell you that something isn't right here." show less

"So much was traded in what went unsaid. In what went protected."

This was not a typical story I'd love but OH I DID! This story sucked me in, right from the beginning. At first, it was hard to untangle who each woman was and who her husband and kids were. But the author did a great job of really giving each woman her own personality and details that made it easier, after just a few chapters, to really break them apart.

And the SECRETS! This one kept me guessing, really wondering who was doing what. It was such an deep dive in to marriages and secrets but also the pull and push of being a mother, a parent of children. We fail so much every day, our degrees of failure are hard to measure - until suddenly there is an accident and a show more neighborhood rocked to its core. THEN you have to wonder, who failed where and was THIS the cost? So good, I was glued to every page and every chapter. I've really grown to love this author and I will definitely look for more from [a:Ashley Audrain|19341148|Ashley Audrain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1588152402p2/19341148.jpg]! show less

I love the construction of this novel, beginning with a neighborhood party where we're introduced to the families, the husbands, wives, children. A horrible thing happens, and then the chapters rotate through the various characters' perspectives. Utterly immersive with believable (which is not the same as likeable) characters. Everyone has their own drama going on and they all fit together like a puzzle. This book is a slow burn drama with a cast of authentic characters who bring out the worst in each other. The ending was perfect.

Why did I pick this up? I'm drawn to Bad Mother books. And this book has got a doozy!

Whitney, the Bad Mother, is something of a Disney villainess. There are a couple of mysteries at the heart of the book: How did her son fall from a third-story window? And who is secretly screwing whom?

Much of the reading time, however was taken up with concerns that don't interest me. Is my husband having an affair? Horrors. Waah I can't have a baby. I'm nonplussed. Give me more Bad Mother plot!

This is a well written book...and what a great story. It was a page-turner for me, wanting to find out what exactly had happened on that Wednesday night...and who was cheating on whom....and who knew what....and....

In fact, it was such an intriguing story that it took a while for the bigger issues to sink in. Issues like expectations on mothers and the cost of not meeting, or wanting to meet, them. Like the right and wrong of keeping secrets. Like loyalty. So I found I liked this book even more after it sat with me for a while.

I liked this suspense novel focused on four women living in a gentrifying neighborhood. Whitney has the high-powered job, gorgeous body, and is a mother of three. But motherhood doesn't exactly agree with her. Blair is the ultimate stay-at-home-mom of one daughter who has dedicated her life to her daughter and is constantly worried that her husband is cheating on her. Rebecca is a gifted ER doctor who has had five miscarriages and is mourning her inability to have a biological child. And Mara is an older woman with her own struggles with motherhood after her only son, who was neurodivergent, died young.

Amongst all of this, Whitney's son falls out of his 3 story bedroom window and his life is in jeopardy as they all wait to see what show more happens during his hospitalization. Many secrets come to light and what everyone has been feeling and doing underneath the glittering surface of their lives is finally revealed.

I've liked both of Audrain's books and will keep reading them for a diversion. show less